Steve Spangler has brought his fun and educational science experiments to his YouTube page. At the time of this review, the channel had over 400 science experiments in short (approx. one minute) videos. Each video demonstrates step by step how to conduct the experiment but leaves it up to the you to decide the science involved. Choose from the featured playlist, browse through uploaded videos, view by fan favorites, or search the channel using a keyword or term to find experiments. Videos can also be sorted by newest or oldest additions. Subscribe to the channel (using your YouTube login) to receive updates when new videos are added. Many include links to further detail and experiment how-tos on Steve's regular web site.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Show a video on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as an introduction before conducting an experiment in class. Stop the video before the ending and have students predict what will happen. Have students journal their thoughts to the science at work in the video. Have students create their own comics to explain a topic using comic-creation tools from this collection. Share this site as a resource for science fair projects or for a school science night. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube.

Are you looking for fellow educators to follow on Twitter? If so, this wiki is a great starting point. Choose from many different categories of educators such as librarians, early childhood, professional development, and much more to begin your search. Each link leads to a list of educators to follow on Twitter along with a short description about themselves, simply click on the Twitter handle to go to Twitter and begin following. Be aware: there is a warning on the top of the main page that the wiki is now "locked down" due to spamming. You are still able to access all the links. You are not able to edit without joining.

In the Classroom

Explore the site to discover and follow educators who match your interests and needs. Read the Tweets about what is happening in other classrooms to gain some new/fresh ideas. Want to know more about Twitter? See TeachersFirst's Twitter for Teachers page.

Learn how food (specifically potatoes) gets from the field to your fork at this interactive site. Focus is on how the potato is grown and harvested and its journey from the farm to the table. The nutritional values of the potato and the part they play in a balanced diet are taught through activities such as The Potato Detective and The Great Potato Quiz. Download a Potato Passport from the teachers portion. The teacher's section of the site also includes many other lesson ideas and activities for the classroom, but are a little hard to find. After going to the teachers section, choose from the headings of Lifecycles, Healthy Potatoes, Growing Potatoes, or Healthy Meals to find all of the wonderful ideas and printables. Of course, this site is created by a company that sells potatoes, so you could have an interesting discussion about class web sites and watching for bias! Since this site was created by the UK, you may notice some slight spelling and/or pronunciation differences than American English.

In the Classroom

The Potato Story interactives are perfect as a center in a science or health class, completing individually in a lab setting, or completing as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector. Be sure to visit the teachers section of the site for complete access to all of the activities, quizzes, and videos provided. Print a potato passport for each of your students to complete as you explore the journey of potatoes from field to fork. If you have parents willing to volunteer, maybe you can have a healthy potato tasting celebration?

Floating Junkyard is a great Scholastic lesson plan for introducing plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean. Here you will find an article from Science World, discussion starter questions, a video (which uses Flash), and worksheets. You can also download the teachers edition for Science World Magazine that will give you more information and ideas for activities.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

The video and activities on this site make it the perfect introduction to the plastic pollution problem in the North Pacific. Be sure to click on the picture of the seal and enlarge it to make it readable. Once you've completed the video and worksheets, consider challenging your students with one of the activities suggested in the teachers edition either under project based learning or additional resources. For older and gifted students you may want to continue this unit by taking a virtual journey on one of the ships that measures and keeps track of marine pollution. You will find this site, Ship-2-Shore Education/ Mapping Plastic Marine Pollution, reviewed here. Set up an RSS feed or Google News search for news of the debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami to add to the discussion.

Rustle the Leaf is a collection of online comic strips, videos, and more that teach about the environment starring Rustle the Leaf and his friends. Choose from the comic archive to view all the comic strips or view short e-movies to learn more about environmental protection. Click "Holiday Plug" to go to their collection of YouTube videos. Many lesson plans are included, ranging from Plastic Poisons to Oceans of Trouble, each plan includes detailed objectives, material lists, lesson methods, worksheets, and other activities.

In the Classroom

The comics would be great discussion starters at the beginning of the day. Post one on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as students arrive to use as a journal prompt or discussion activity. The resources on Rustle the Leaf are really well done, these can be used throughout the year, monthly, or all together as a focused unit. Challenge students to create their own comics (or videos) to explain an environmental topic using comic-creation tools from this collection.

Aww App is a super simple browser-based application for creating drawings. Click on "Start Drawing" to begin. Choose from different pencil sizes or colors and use the mouse to write. Share the link with others to collaborate on a single whiteboard then share results via the share link. Sharing can be done through Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or url. This site could really be used on any device: computer, tablet, smartphone, interactive whiteboard, etc.. and on any browser. It does work on iOS devices.

In the Classroom

If you are fortunate enough to have tablets in the classroom, this application would work well for collaborative illustrations. Have each student add a different part of a story for retelling or summarizing main events while others watch and share additional information. Have students create simple math problems while another student solves. Sketch out plans for visual projects, brainstorm freehand, or even create collaborative diagrams to accompany lab reports.

Try out this interactive tool demonstrating storyboarding concepts. You can build your own storyboard using resources from the free media library. In the 'Choose Your Script' version, select from three genres: horror, comedy or romance. This storyboard can then be published and saved, shared, embedded, or linked. In the 'Build your own' version, photographs can be uploaded or used from the Free Media Library to build personalized visuals using silhouette characters. Your created script that can be embedded, linked, or shared. Be sure to check out the many instruction videos included on the site for tips on creating storyboards. Registration with email is required to share and save storyboards.

In the Classroom

Demonstrate how to create and use a storyboard using this tool on your interactive whiteboard (or projector). View stories from the gallery for inspiration before attempting to have students create their own. Create a storyboard and share when teaching creative writing techniques or story mapping. Have students tell the story they have viewed. Challenge students to create a storyboard of readings recently finished in class as a review of characters and story plot. Use storyboards as the first step in planning larger projects from plays to videos.

Use this free site to create a private chat room where you can watch videos with others at multiple locations in real time. Create a chat room and use the link to send to others. Use the Facebook app to post to Facebook. Watch the video synchronously while making comments in the chat window. Note: members of the chat can change the video at any time, and it will change for all those in the private room. There is no way to lock this function. Want to save the chat? Copy and paste to share later or use screen shots (command/shift/4 on a Mac or print screen on PC.) Save your room and go back later to view the chat and watch more videos with your friends. Note that the videos are from YouTube so may not be accessible in schools. There is no way for adults to monitor the chat other than being part of it.

In the Classroom

Use for teaching a concept with others by viewing portions of videos and chatting content and main points with each other. Use for reviewing materials for exams or to prepare for project creation. Be sure to set rules on changing videos when in sessions with others. Set up a snow day or evening video viewing time and url to watch and discuss videos together with the teacher for extra help or enrichment. As an online back to school night, share a video at a specified time and invite parents to join you and chat their questions. Offer video/chat how-to sessions for major projects, such as science fair or other major independent work. Enhance video instructions for any major assignment by scheduling a watch together session. Use together with Khan Academy videos for math class. Make your "flipped" classroom more social using watch together.

Create gif animations easily from uploaded images using this site. Images can be uploaded from computer files, pulled from Flickr, or pulled from YouTube videos. Choose up to four images, select size and speed, then select the continue button in the right-hand corner of the screen. Images can take up to a few minutes to process before seeing the resulting gif. When the animated gif is created, share using links on the page to many popular social sharing sites or download to your computer.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Create an animated gif for any subject as an introduction to a new unit. Include images to spark student conversation as a way of determining background knowledge before teaching. Share this site with students to use when creating multimedia projects. Create a fun image to use on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) when introducing the student of the week. Share student-created images on your classroom website or blog to enhance or inspire student writing or poetry projects. Make a class mascot image to include on your wiki or blog and have young students write stories about it.

Anki is a flashcard creator with a twist. The program is used everyday, and each response is rated as Easy, Very easy, Good, or Again. Very easy questions won't be shown again for 7 days, Again responses will be shown again during the same session. Choose the number of flashcards to use for each session, time to spend, and number of questions to be offered. Search by topic to find readymade flashcards or create your own. This program needs to be downloaded to your computer following the onsite directions. Windows, Mac, and Linux versions are available.

In the Classroom

Create flashcards for your classes using Anki -- or have them make their own. Try using them as an introduction to a concept, then again in the practice of the concept, and again as a final review. It is a nice three for one creation deal! This would be great for teaching Latin prefixes and suffixes of words to students. Use this site to learn science terms or for standardized test preparation. Try having students create flashcards and share with each other to quiz themselves within their own groups. Teach students in higher grades how to create flash cards with multiple blanks to challenge their brain to remember more pieces of the puzzle (even counterexamples). Show them how to carefully read through their classroom notes and underline the most important word or words in a sentence. Then have them leave out the most important words for their flashcards. Learning support teachers might want to have small groups create cards together to review together before tests. Have students create flashcard sets to "test" classmates on what they "teach" in oral reports. Since this program is a download, flashcards may be difficult to share - one suggestion is to download the program onto a USB stick to be shared as needed. Students can also create flashcards for classmates to try after watching peer's presentations.

Create and save text-based logos instantly with this easy to use application. Make the logo short, about 50 characters. Type in a class name, title, mythical creature, anything you wish, and generate several different logo possibilities. Click Generate logo again to see more choices. You can bookmark or download and save the ones you like. Save the logo "as is" or modify elements of the logo such as background, font type, or uploading your own image. Download the image as a png file to your computer. Only one free download allowed per day so you may want to plan accordingly.

In the Classroom

Have students create custom logos to go along with book reports, classroom presentations, and more. They can create logos for themselves (using a screen name or slogan) to include on a class wiki or in other online projects. Create your own classroom logo for use on your class website, wiki or classroom stationary. Display the site on your interactive whiteboard to demonstrate how to use different fonts and colors within the program. Share this tool on your class web page so students can create logos any time. For a first week of school activity, if you have access to multiple computers, have students create individual logos of "taglines"about themselves, such as "Lego master" or "Expert dog trainer" and put them on a class wiki page for others to guess/match identities as a getting to know you activity. Others can offer their guesses using the discussion tab on the wiki page.

This simple (yet fantastic) survey creator uses images for the multiple choices instead of text. Video tutorials on the site demonstrate how to create a survey; however, the process is easy to follow. Click on Create a survey, choose a title, layout, and theme and start filling in your survey questions. Upload a picture for each response, and personalize the survey as desired. Completed surveys can be shared via url, Facebook, and Twitter or embedded into websites or blogs. Up to 100 responses are allowed using the free version.

In the Classroom

Share polls on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start a new unit. Ask questions about the material. Discuss in groups why those in class would choose a particular answer to uncover misconceptions. Use for daily quiz questions to gain knowledge of student understanding and as a means of formative assessment. Have student groups alternate to create a new poll for the next day. Place a poll on your teacher web page as homework inspiration or to ask questions to increase parent involvement. Older students may want to include polls on their student blogs to increase reader involvement or create polls to use at the start of project presentations. Use polls to generate data for math class (graphing), during elections, or for critical thinking activities dealing with interpretation of statistics. Use "real" data to engage students on issues that matter to them. Use visual polls to identify cells or other scientific images as a formative assessment.

Create quick and simple custom jigsaw puzzles. Upload a jpeg image to the site. Choose how many pieces you want and the shape. Jigsaw Planet does the rest. Instantly create a custom interactive puzzle for your students to play! Change the background using tools at the bottom of the puzzle. Puzzles can be saved for your own account, shared with students via a url, or embedded into your classroom website for easy access. This site requires Java.

In the Classroom

Use these puzzles on your projector or interactive whiteboard! Each puzzle is timed as you put it together. Split students into teams to see which team can complete the puzzle the fastest. Instead of the typical PowerPoint type presentation to teach students facts, create a puzzle for them to put together and have them read the fact once the puzzle has been completed. Turn your classroom rules into a series of jigsaw puzzles for students to put together. Honor your star student of the week by creating a puzzle of that student. Just take a picture of the student and upload to Jigsaw Planet. Students can use Jigsaw Planet to create their own puzzles. This is a great place for them to study. They can upload spelling words, math facts, maps, etc. Students will love creating their own jigsaw puzzles. If you have a projector or an interactive whiteboard, have students create a puzzle all about them. They can create a collage of things they like in a presentation program, take a screen shot of it, and upload the puzzle to Jigsaw Planet. Students can put together each other's puzzles and guess who the student is based on the pictures. This would be a great getting to know you activity for the first week of school!

Create interactive online activities quickly and easily with LearnClick's Create a Gap. Submit any text you'd like to learn and mark the text you want deleted for a fill-in-the-blank type of activity. Easily create quizzes or tests for individualized students or your entire class. Create a free account with your email. Follow the simple steps to create tests in minutes with varying options for response style choices; blank boxes, generated drop downs, or drag and drop. Search the quiz bank to save time. The free version allows you to make up to five quizzes, which are published on your public page. Your public page allows a direct link to your quizzes.

In the Classroom

In the classroom, use as a review tool on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Assign as homework for a study aid. Create study aids for ELL/ESL, or learning support students to review and learn with a "techie twist." Let students take control! Have students create the tests, in order to find the main idea or quiz each other. Use in centers for a fun review of current vocabulary, concepts, or even mathematical practice. Divide the class into cooperative learning groups to cover all aspects of one topic. The subject areas are limitless. Use as a "Jeopardy" style competition. Post on your website as a resource for parents to help their students keep motivated to study in a fun way!

Create a personalized dashboard that pulls together feeds and tools into one place -- for any topic. Optional registration allows access to updated information at anytime. This tool has power as s simple resource collector "on the fly" or as a customizable way to monitor many tools from one place. Creation of multiple dashboards requires an email address and password or Facebook sign-in. Use it the simple way by typing in any topic into the search bar; wait a few seconds while information is compiled then explore the results. Results are posted in widgets that can be moved around to personalize the dashboard as needed. A wizard will walk you through it if you wish. Tabs are also included that separate news items, videos, conversations, and more. View pages in reader format or with widgets by choosing from options at the top of the page. You can copy the url of a basic topic dashboard to access over and over. Signing in on a free account allows you to customize and save your dashboards and harness the real power to pull everything into one place.

In the Classroom

Demonstrate the power and uses of this site on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) with students to use as a resource for gathering research information. For example, create a dashboard on an environmental ("oil spill") or political topic. Gather current events from multiple sources into one place. Set up a dashboard on earthquakes or weather during science units so students can connect real world information with curriculum. Use this site for group projects, have team members work together to gather information, then share using a tool such as Crocodoc reviewed here. As a professional tool, create a dashboard for monitoring feeds from student activity on multiple web-based tools at a time (wikis, blogs, etc.). You can also create a dashboard on professional topics to keep yourself well informed.

ShowMe is an open learning community where you can learn or teach any subject. Explore topics such as math, science, world languages, social studies, art, and more. Explore the links on the home page or search for a topic with the search bar at the top of the page. Results are divided into subtopics and can be sorted by featured, popular, or recent videos. High school teachers may be especially interested in the ShowMe SAT offerings available through a link at the bottom of each page. Creating a ShowMe of your own requires a download of the app from the iTunes store (and an iPad). The download is free. If you are worried about students seeing questionable material, you may want to provide the link directly to the video you wish students to view. At the time of this review, all material appeared appropriate. Although it is not available yet, Showme hopes to offer an Android version of the app, as well.

In the Classroom

Share the site (or individual videos) with your students to access at home for homework help using the Facebook, Twitter, email, or embed link on each video. List the ShowMe link on your class website. View tutorials on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) as a whole class. Encourage students to share links to specific videos they find helpful on a "Video Reviews" page of your class wiki. For a very real challenge, have students create their own simple review videos using the ShowMe app on iPads (if available) then embed them on your class wiki for a year-to-year student-made study guide! For examples of sophisticated topics simplified in whiteboard stick figure videos, see Common Craft, reviewed here.

Critical Past offers a collection of more than 57,000 historical videos and more than 7 million historical photos. All of the photos and videos are royalty free, archival stock footage. The site is in the business of selling these images and clips. "Royalty free" means that purchasing an image/clip will not require additional fees to the photographer, but it does NOT mean that the images/clips are "free" to download and use at will. Most of the footage comes from U.S. Government Agency sources. All of the videos and photos can be viewed for free online and shared with others via url, Twitter, or Facebook. Search the site either by decade, topic, or keyword. Along the right side bar of Critical Past, you will find "related videos" that correlate to the current search.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use photos or videos on Critical Past to help illustrate what students are learning in history. Ask students to be "eyewitnesses" of history and watch a video before they have context for it. Students can write or blog about what they think they are witnessing. Afterward they can research the event in more depth and write a follow-up reflection on what was actually happening in the clip. Challenge your students to use a site such as Timetoast reviewed here to create timelines of topics researched on the site. Use images from public domain sites, such as the collections reviewed here, to illustrate the events.

This NASA site showcases vast educational resources. eClips videos are arranged by grade level: K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Be sure to check out the general public section. The short video clips are designed to showcase NASA work and its importance and impact on everyday life here on Earth. The clip lengths make them perfect for classroom use or for young people to view on their own. Each age range has a different focus. K-5 videos show students how NASA research provides information about the Earth and our solar system. 6-8 videos focus on real-world problem solving. Problem solving is the central theme for 9-12 videos. View the videos online or download onto a computer. The entire eClips library is also available on YouTube here for those who want to use YouTube tools with the videos. There is closed captioning available from the CC button on all the videos.

In the Classroom

Find viewing guides and project ideas to use in the classroom. Use the YouTube versions to embed a video in your class wiki and have students respond to questions there. As a STEM career exploration, have students watch a video of their choice and write a plan for how they might become a scientist involved in such a project.

This site features unbelievable microscope images and videos to engage you in tiny life you cannot see with your eye alone. Though a commercial site that actually sells images and footage, several tabs are worth a close look. The "Micronaturalist Notebook" tells a story about the organisms with detailed and labeled pictures. Use the information to learn about the intricacies of microscopic life. Find specific organisms in the "Biogalleries." Many of the pictures showcase the larva and the adult forms of these organisms.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use these organisms to discuss various Phyla or Classes of organisms to identify the similarity and differences among them. Use the Micronaturalist Notebook as a template for students to create information pages about what they see in their class lab. Create pages on a blog, wiki, or site to share with others. Use these images on an Interactive Whiteboard (or projector) and make them larger than life! Ask stimulating questions such as "How do these organisms show that they are indeed living?" or "Which of these organisms are most like another?" Share the responses to identify the characteristics of living things or discuss the similarity of structure and function among them.

Learn to read at a faster pace with much better reading comprehension using Spreeder, a free online speed reading service. Use passages of your choice by simply loading (or copy and paste) the text, and Spreeder will pace through it at a speed you set. You can adjust your speed as your reading comprehension increases. There is also a feature to increase "chunk" size, an effective strategy used in reading instruction. Get the free app for Chrome or use the practice box on the site. There is a paid "training" portion for this tool. This review is only for the free portion.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

In this era of high-stakes testing, it is imperative that students be able to read and comprehend at an expected rate in order to complete the tasks within the designated time. Think about the implications for improving state test scores and PSAT or SAT college entrance exams! Demonstrate Spreeder on your classroom projector or interactive whiteboard by copying and pasting practice passages from your state's Department of Education link to state testing. Link to SAT practice sites such as College Board SAT Preparation Center, reviewed here, or Test Prep Review, reviewed here. Provide opportunities for students to try it on individual classroom computers. Provide a direct link to Spreeder from your classroom web page or wiki. This will enable motivated students to take charge of increasing their own reading speed, or you may want to incorporate it with homework assignments and make parents aware of it.